DblD sez: "even goldleaf in churches" Time for a true story? Reading your post reminded me of a true incident that happened to one of my gold recycling students back in a 4 session intensive in spring of 1991.
One of my provocative demo examples whenever I appear at tradeshows or teach classes that never fails to generate curiousity or questions are 4 strips of goldwire adorned material that appear to be disassembled loops from some item. Yes, they resemble the gold/silver thread used to this day on military hat bands, epaulets, braid, etc, which decorate our fighting men and women.
You see, I retrieved them from an aging religious symbol filled banner which wound up its life in a fabric bin in one of my "thriftier haunts."
In this particular class of adult students, we were going over some of the materials in the old typesetting tray I use for my primary eye-catching/traffic-stopping prop in my goldshow exhibitions as well as my classes, up and down the West Coast.
The invariable "5 W's" questions began to circulate and I shared the info posted above.
The very next week, Julie, who was then taken my course opened the new class-session with this account:
After sharing the previous week's info, including the discussion about the religious banner loops of gold thread with her mother, Julie reported her mother left the room for a few moments and returned with an arm full of vestments. Turns out, as Julie told us, her mother had been voluntarily doing the parish priests' laundry for years , a form of religious tithing if you please. Many years prior, as her mother was returning the various garments to a Father, he was in the process of throwing into the rectory's outside trashcan what appeared to her mother, to be vestments.
The Father confirmed that she had observed correctly. Asking if she could take them instead, Julie's mom was granted permission to 'raid the holy trash.'
The two women, dropped me a thank you note about 3 weeks after that Julie's TSP class sessions concluded, here in Beaverton, Oregon. Turns out, the women had worked every spare minute they could steal, detaching all the gold/silver threading on those vestments, and then unwinding them from their various cotton cores. They then had taken them to a refiner in the area who I recommended in class was trustworthy. Julie and her mom were thanking me for in excess of 4 troy oz of refined gold, and 20+ oz of silver which they subsequently sold. This little project had provided her mother a little over $2,000 windfall in her Social Security only existence.
I JUST LOVE THIS STORY. IT IS ONE OF MANY JUST LIKE IT I've collected over the years from my "graduates." What a payoff for my sharing!!!!!!
Long live the goldleaf in the churches, DD,
as well as the pomp and circumstance that occasionally benefits the "poor in wallet" not just in spirit!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEhaw
O/49r
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